Friday, March 7, 2008
9:08 AM
On our first day we went to two farms. One is an organic farm, while the other is a hydroponics farm. Both with many differences. The first farm we went to was “Green Circle Eco-Farm”. It’s situated in Neo Tiew Road. The farm’s motto is “A biodynamic organic vegetable farm in Singapore, dedicated to producing healthy food and looking after the environment.” You can easily tell that this is an organic farm. This means that they do not use pesticides and non-biodegradable materials. The farm was rather quite interesting. The techniques the farmers used were very basic and simple but effective. This farm uses nature to do its farming. An example is the pond in the farm. There is loads of water hyacinths in the pond this is to absorb the harmful chemicals present in rain water. Then, the water is transported via pipes to other plants.
Another technique they used was crop rotation. You may not understand what this means but it simply means the rotation of crops. For example I have a very sweet plant. The ants begin to feed on it. The crops are then quickly sold. Now the ants would be waiting for the next batch of sweet plants but, the farmer now grows it in another area of the farm. It will take a very long time before the ants migrate. This is crop rotation. These are few of the many things we learnt in the farm.
The second farm we went to was Oh Chin Huat Hydroponics Farm, situated at Nee Soon Agrotechnology Parks. This farm too does not use pesticides to grow its crops. It aims to promote a healthy living and to raise awareness on hydroponics technology. I wish that this trip was as informative as the previous one. This is because, the tour guide was emphasizing on the nutritional value of crops and not on the implications of hydroponics. I just know that this farm uses a lot of water but this water lasts the plants its whole growing season. I should say that the interesting part about this is that the seeds are placed in cotton sponges.
This day was interesting.